A rare family collection belonging to Fred (Ephraim) Monosson; an industrialist, philanthropist, and Zionist activist who has worked tirelessly to help and support the State of Israel over the years. Highlights of the collection include footage of Post WWII Europe, as well as videos of Pre-Israel Palestine at the end of British Mandatory rule. The European films include colour footage of everyday life at Germany’s displaced persons camps, the liberated Auschwitz death camp, the war criminals’ camp in Buchenwald, Berlin after it was conquered by the Red Army, and the Cyprus internment camps.
Films from Israel / Palestine include footage of Kfar Etzion prior to its fall in 1947; Jerusalem’s Old City; members of the JNF board, Hebrew Gymnasium students in their school uniform, Tel Aviv’s Purim parade, Jerusalem’s inaugural military parade, life in Jewish migrant camps, the arrival of Yemeni Jews as part of Operation Magic Carpet, and a slew of Jewish community influential figures such as David Ben Gurion, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, Daniel Auster, and others. This is a family film collection of paramount historical significance, featuring well over 30 hours’ worth of film footage that will no doubt prove itself an instrumental source of information for scholars, filmmakers, students, museums, various organisations, etc. The collection is the property of Avishai Kfir who has entrusted it in the hands of the Israeli Film Archive. The Archive is in charge of its maintenance and management, scientific preservation, and accessibility to the general public.
